Weighing up to the galactic scale!

The sermon on Sunday was centred around the brutal fact that our lives are short and difficult (don't worry, I'm not going to try and preach to you in the hopes of converting you to Christianity). Now I love my life and am generally satisfied with it, but even I (the greatest optimist that ever lived) have to admit that this is true!If you think about it; we spend most of our lives wanting stuff, trying to get stuff and wanting more stuff. When we're babies this is limited to food, love and protection. As we grow older this stretches out to include things like a sense of identity, belonging, an education, security, a career and in some cases self actualisation. There is simply never a time when we reach a steady state and we think: 'OK great, I've got everything I've ever wanted and now I can just sit here and live peacefully (because when we get there we simply move the goalposts, right?). I personally think this constant need for improvement and change is both a blessing and a curse; a blessing because it pushes us higher and higher towards greater human accomplishment (we end up achieving far beyond our tiny minds could have conceived) but a curse because it makes our desires insatiable....especially if the things we're chasing after are inherently meaningless. Now, I'm not advocating for either approach but next time you find yourself over-stressing and not quite reaching the sweet spot in happiness, gratitude and contentment just stop for a second and ask yourself; 'on a galactic scale, in the greater scheme of things, just how important is this thing that's stressing me out?'